Best-selling author inaugurates Creative Minds series

Doug Wyatt

Saturday

Sep 29, 2007 at 7:50 AM

Creative Minds is about sharing wisdom.

The third annual speaker series, which takes place at Savannah Country Day School throughout the school year, brings together people from diverse fields to speak at open forums, intended to stimulate dialogue and spark debate.

This year's initial speaker is best-selling author Alexandra Robbins, who wrote "The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids." She'll speak Monday night at the school's Jelks Auditorium.

Robbins' book examines the intense pressure faced by students, particularly during grueling college and private school admission processes. She returned to her high school on the anniversary of her 10-year reunion, then followed nine students for more than year.

She concluded in her book that everyone should cool it a bit - parents should stop pressuring their high-achieving children so much, high schools should limit Advanced Placement courses and colleges should eliminate SAT scores as part of the admissions processes.

In her lecture, Robbins will discuss her findings and offer solutions to help alleviate the pressure on high-achieving children.

The New York Times said of her book, " 'The Overachievers' is part soap opera, part social treatise. Robbins gets the big picture right."

Other speakers in series

Nov. 5 - Author E.L. Doctorow, author of such novels as "Billy Bathgate," "Ragtime" and "World Fair." Doctorow won the National Book Critics Circle Award with his Civil War novel, "The March," which describes Gen. Sherman's 1864 March to the Sea. In his appearance, he'll read passages from "The March" and take questions from the audience.

March 3: World religions scholar Reza Aslan, regular commentator for NPR's "Marketplace" and a Middle East analyst for CBS News. Aslan's first book, "No God But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam," has been translated into half a dozen languages.

April 7: Jon Meacham, managing editor of Newsweek magazine. Meacham is the author of "Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship," chronicling the wartime relationship between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

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